Best looking car dealership web sites.

Ranger07

Ranger07

Ranger07

Associate
Joined
26 Nov 2007
Posts
1,252
Hey all,

Looking for a bit of advice on car dealer web sites that you have seen and have been impressed with, anything from used car dealers to franchised. From my experience the motor trade in general makes terrible use of the web, most sites look really out of date and have poor search functions.

The reason being, our company web site looks really out of date and badly needs a refresh, I have a company that will be building the new site but I want some ideas to show them. Would even like to do all the usual facebook/twitter and perhaps iphone/ipad apps also.

You can check out our current site here-

www.pearsoncars.com
 
I actually think your site is very usable, i'd certainly sort out the background image, its low quality, or remove it completely.

to be honest i dont think ive ever really used a dealers own site, always end up on autotrader or something.
 
ashrobbo said:
I actually think your site is very usable, i'd certainly sort out the background image, its low quality, or remove it completely.

to be honest i dont think ive ever really used a dealers own site, always end up on autotrader or something.
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Its more used for local advertising and for our customers to keep up to date with our stock list. We also need to add servicing bookings, aftersales special offers etc.
 
Unless you paid that amount you're selling it for, isn't it easier to make less and just get it off the forecourt?

I find people seriously lack detail when selling cars, IMO start putting on, tyre brands, MM left, previous owners etc.

Just get all the detail on there.

Also pics of SH booklet etc aswell.
 
As said above, the functionality of your current site is by no means bad. It's just the design and UI could do with an overhaul.

Twitter/BookFail integration is an absolute doddle, but don't just do it because everyone else is. You need to plan a strategy which includes what you're going to tweet, how often and why people will care about it.

Finally, don't bother with an iPad/iPhone app. It's another thing that reeks of 'everyone else is'. Using AT would pretty much take care of having these apps, plus your adverts are far more likely to be seen there. The best thing to do here is make sure any new design you have created for the website is responsive so that it works on desktop, tablet and phone.
 
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pepsilol said:
Unless you paid that amount you're selling it for, isn't it easier to make less and just get it off the forecourt?

I find people seriously lack detail when selling cars, IMO start putting on, tyre brands, MM left, previous owners etc.

Just get all the detail on there.

Also pics of SH booklet etc aswell.
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We will no doubt reduce it.

Thats a good idea on the tyre brands, SH etc thats something most dealers don't do.
 
Spunkey said:
As said above, the functionality of your current site is by no means bad. It's just the design and UI could do with an overhaul.

Twitter/BookFail integration is an absolute doddle, but don't just do it because everyone else is. You need to plan a strategy which includes what you're going to tweet, how often and why people will care about it.

Finally, don't bother with an iPad/iPhone app. It's another thing that reeks of 'everyone else is'. Using AT would pretty much take care of having these apps, plus your adverts are far more likely to be seen there.
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The main problem with Autotrader is A) its quite expensive B) most people are looking for the cheapest deals C) your competition is nationwide.

We would love to have the cheapest stock but almost every savy person these days wants to pay the cheapest price on the web and in return receive the highest price for their trade in, its a difficult balancing act for a dealer.

You might have a point about the apps.
 
People buy cars on price - that's the market. Most people don't buy on dealer service because most dealers offer the same worthless service anyway.

I don't see how you can avoid autotrader. It's a rip off but a necessary evil unfortunately.
 
[TW]Fox;20110256 said:
People buy cars on price - that's the market. Most people don't buy on dealer service because most dealers offer the same worthless service anyway.

I don't see how you can avoid autotrader. It's a rip off but a necessary evil unfortunately.
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We do use Autotrader and we do sell on it. But as you mention people buy on price so we only advertise well priced or harder to find stock. We currently have 12 cars on out of around 100 used in stock atm.
 
Ranger07 said:
Local papers and "walk ins" mostly. We have two garages on very busy main roads which helps also.
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From a business perspective isn't that a little silly ruling out a huge amount of potential customers?

Statistically you would be ruling out 95% of your customers surely? Sounds very much like this business operates in the 90s.

No offense just trying to bounce ideas.
 
By far and away the best car sales site I have ever seen is http://www.eclecticcars.co.uk/
Okay, it's not really very suitable to a standard dealership but the detail that cars are described with, along with a nice design, goes a long way for me.
 
IMO get vwworker to freshen up your design to modern days and start descibing the cars into stupid amounts of detail. This will give customers more confidence and would more likely to come a further distance. IF they do come from a good distance and you have every single piece of detail on the website along with pictures, I can guarantee they're coming to buy.

And start using more advertising methods to get people onto your website.
 
pepsilol said:
From a business perspective isn't that a little silly ruling out a huge amount of potential customers?

Statistically you would be ruling out 95% of your customers surely? Sounds very much like this business operates in the 90s.

No offense just trying to bounce ideas.
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pepsilol said:
IMO get vwworker to freshen up your design to modern days and start descibing the cars into stupid amounts of detail. This will give customers more confidence and would more likely to come a further distance. IF they do come from a good distance and you have every single piece of detail on the website along with pictures, I can guarantee they're coming to buy.

And start using more advertising methods to get people onto your website.
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I agree we are still to an extent a bit old fashioned hence why I'm looking for ideas. From a car sales point of view its not really my department as I run the service side of things but our salesmen do tend to be older and not so up to date on modern media and advertising but this is something we can work on.


Hxc said:
By far and away the best car sales site I have ever seen is http://www.eclecticcars.co.uk/
Okay, it's not really very suitable to a standard dealership but the detail that cars are described with, along with a nice design, goes a long way for me.
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I love that site, it looks very fresh and has a nice lay out.
 
It's good that you are seeking help with usability of your site - so many sites in your sector are poor and don't even offer the resources a prospective buyer will want to know.

Here's what I think:

  • Bear in mind where your site visitors are landing from - their user story. An example is that despite the relative low amount of cars advertised on Autotrader (As above you may want to review this), many may indeed come from Autotrader. Therefore their primary requirements are Better pictures, More detail, Contact Details, Company History and Location
  • Main rotating image banner doesn't appear to work in Chrome and just gives a black banner.
  • If you are going to play on the "Family Business" PR line and come across as friendly and welcoming - then it would be a good idea to have a section about the history of the company and who the main faces are.
  • On new cars, my instinct was to click on one of the cars as I though it was a hyperlink. Perhaps move the bottom text line above the images and if it isnt feasible to write your own section about the individual cars, then hyperlink the pictures to the main Suzuki site - to the individual models if possible. You'd benefit from putting the names of the models under the relevant pictures here.
  • Used car section is good.
  • Contact page doesn't display correctly for me in Chrome.
  • On the contact page (which is good) perhaps mention that you welcome people who drop in - it may be obvious for your sites, but many similar sites have "Appointment Only" written all over them so use this to your advantage and be as welcoming as possible.
  • Perhaps incorporate news onto the main page as it is rather hidden in the company section - this is more in line with many main sites. However, it needs to be kept up to date.

Apols as its a bit of a TLDR, but my company does site evaluation and usability as a service line and it rubs off ;) I admit I did only skim read your site so apols if I missed anything.
 
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Thanks Gayjin, plenty of good feedback there.

On the Family business point, your right there is very little info. On the link Hxc provided there's an excellent introduction to all the staff. This is something we should incorporate into the new site.

http://www.eclecticcars.co.uk/the-eclectic-team/

I didnt know we had compatibility problems with Chrome, another thing we'll have to sort out.

All your other points make sense, I'll put all everything on my 'to have done' list
 
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